Sergio Aguero rescues a point for Manchester City against dominant Liverpool

Sergio Aguero capitalised on a mistake by Pepe Reina to salvage a 2-2 draw for second-placed Manchester City at home to Liverpool.

Steven Gerrard’s long-range strike had given the Reds a deserved 2-1 lead with a little over 15 minutes remaining at the Etihad Stadium.

But Aguero’s excellent finish from the tightest of angles, after Reina had raced from his line, earned Roberto Mancini’s side a point – leaving them nine adrfift of neighbours Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

Earlier, Daniel Sturridge had pulled Liverpool level on the half hour mark after Edin Dzeko gave the home side a first-half lead against the run of play.

The Bosnian, who was selected ahead of Carlos Tevez after the midweek stalemate at QPR, had a simple finish from three-yards out when James Milner got in behind the visitors’ defence and teasingly squared for the big striker to tap in on 22 minutes.

Out of the blue: Edin Dzeko pounces for City (Picture: Getty)

The goal came after a consistent period of pressure from the away side, but it didn’t take long for Brendan Rodgers’ men to get back on level terms when Sturridge lashed home from 20 yards eight minutes later.

City’s captain for the day Pablo Zabaleta narrowly avoided embarrassment just before the half-time whistle, when his back-pass wrong footed Joe Hart and only just crept wide of the post.

And it was the Reds who began the second-half in the ascendancy as well, pushing their second-placed hosts on to the back foot.

Sturridge thought he had won a penalty after nipping round Joleon Lescott, but referee Anthony Taylor decided otherwise and booked the striker for diving.

It didn’t take too much longer for Liverpool to get the second goal their dominance deserved, however – Gerrard lashing home a superb volley from outside the area.

But any hopes Rodgers had of sealing an excellent win at City were quashed when Aguero nipped in after a mix-up between Reina and substitute Martin Skrtel to fire home virtually from the by-line.